So, after several attempts at a peaceful game with the potential of a cultural victory I finally decided enough was enough and went with India. To my North, a mere 5 tiles away was a city state, 8 to my west was Egypt and my good friend Genghis was to East. I had a good feeling about this peaceful cultural game already. There was another City state sort of between us, but more below than between.
Anyhow, the first thing I noticed was the soul crushing unhappiness of new cities with India. One city and I went from +3 to -5. I got back to parity and got a second settler out with a social policy, but I thought I'd wait a minute. Then Ramesses had to try and plonk a city of his own nearby, so I was forced to take the plunge to -8! I built up some defensive troops, and got my empire off to a good start. To bought up the city state below me and I eventually added a 4th city next to old faithful and a mountain, which I felt was ample protection from Genghis, who was at the time being friendly. My continent turned into a big peaceful love fest and whilst Ramesses was crushed into a corner he loved me and Genghis too. Everybody lived happily ever after...
...wait, that doesn't sound right. No, Genghis declared war on my city state friend and was about to steam roll it. I asked him nicely to stop (asked him how much for peace) and he told me he didn't need anything. So that crisis was averted and everyone was happy. Then he suddenly decided he hated me and built up a massive army on my boarder. Having changed my pants I watched as Genghis declared war on my city state friend Florence once more... This time it was a permanent war, a mere 100 turns in (good show ol' chap!). Not wanting to lose my ally I surrounded his city with my own troops. I covered the 4 spaces free whilst one was a mountain and another water (behind a mass of mountains and my land) and then proceeded to wait for Genghis to declare war on me. Instead of declaring war on me, he seemed happy to just keep marching new units into their land and losing a troop per turn. It was like some strange conveyor belt.
During this time I'd built around 8 wonders and hit a mid game wonder drought. Having Ramesses next to me I thought I'd be beaten to everyone, but it seemed that I boxed him in nicely. Or so I thought. He'd cunningly added to his 3 city empire with a cheeky 5 cities on another continent, 2 on rubbish islands and had working relationships with all the other empires in the world, which he seemingly exploited for research agreements. As such the rubbish little empire I thought was no threat was suddenly a massive monster on my boarder. He was out teching me and soon to my distress so was another empire, Persia. I scouted the rest of the World, finding yet again (for the 4th time in 4 games) the charred remains of the Inca and some other pointless empires.
Some time passed and it was clear that I wasn't doing well in the tech states, however I got a social policy giving me research from city states and as such bought them up like cheap who... ... ...whine... Wine! This coupled with research agreements with Genghis, who was still merrily expending a troop per turn on Florence allowed me back into the game. During this time I noted how peaceful the world was. Excluding the mandatory early destruction of the Inca the world was at complete peace and had been throughout the game.
I then got a pop up telling me that the Persians were doing better in the culture stakes. He then proceeded to build another 4 cities in some free space he found (phew!). Having this threat to my cultural victory attempt out of the way I moved on to continue watching the turnly destruction of Genghis' troops.
Soon we moved into the modern era and I was once more in trouble in the tech stakes, but not far off in culture. My capital was a production machine and everyone was happy and peaceful. Then suddenly the arch duke of Siam was assassinated, or something of the sort. Suddenly Siam declared war on Russia, then Persia on Siam, then Egypt on Persia. The peace of the world dissolved within turns and suddenly cities were going every few turns. Genghis got in the action by attacking everyone at once (?!?!?!) whilst still keeping up their war with Florence (still ticking along). Did it matter? So from the most peaceful games (only one civ brutally slaughtered) I had to the ( Siam-Egypt v Persia-Russia ) v Genghis war.
Whilst this was fun and all I only really cared about my culture win. Then suddenly rolling denouncements against me?! It started with Siam (the only interaction we've had is meeting one another) and then to Genghis (HELP!) then suddenly Persia, Russia and Egypt. The wars stopped and I had the planet making menacing comments and movements toward my pitiful empire. Then Russia decided to help themselves to Siam, just casually. It literally took 10 turns.
Everything died down, I had one social policy left and everyone was friendly with me again (?!). At this time Ramesses was parading around his nuclear weapons whilst Genghis was still trying to take Florence. I was bracing for an epic finally. Now having all my policies I began construction of the Utopia Project with 14 turns to build. The very next turn I got the message "Persia has completed the United Nations" and it was 10 turns to the vote for diplomatic victory. The turn before the vote I faced a dilemma. Having 11 city state friends I could even just not vote for myself, it was guaranteed victory. But I didn't want some crap diplomatic victory, I came for culture and I endured some 300 turns of watching Genghis lose troops to get it! So I declared war on 2 of my city state friends, then made peace. I didn't check who they'd default to and I was told the next turn:
Votes:
Darius - 9
You - 8
Others - 1
He sly git bought out one of my city states! Clever AI, still not good enough though. Then I realised that he bought out the one that I had +200 influence with, whilst I had two that were previously his teetering on about 70-80. Persia aside I reflected on their decision to screw their chances of a cultural victory by building more cities and waiting through more of Genghis' troops being destroyed by Florence. With a turn to go I let Genghis have his way and withdrew my troops. I was informed I won, but nothing about Florence. After looking through the graphs were Persia kicked me into dust in the raw culture stakes throughout most of the game I decided to play another turn to see what happened. It was then that Genghis asked me what my troops were doing "on his boarder" and I assured him that "they were passing through the area". Looking down I saw that he'd moved some troops. He apparently didn't even bother trying to go for Florence because my troops were a threat (?!?!). At least that's what it seemed like. So after thousands of years of war, they give up on their chance because my peaceful empire moved some troops... out of the way!
Overall, whilst annoying that I had to watch
EVERY
SINGLE
ONE
of Genghis' troops be destroyed, it was sort of fun, in a... well, actually no! It was just annoying and made the game take twice as long! The cultural victory had some tactics not involved that my usual;
I'm being peaceful
Don't declare war
AAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGG
Since when did I control their entire empi... oh!
strategy, and to be honest it was quite fun. Though, in a game where the AI are gits because "they play like people", I do wish they were like people sometimes and realise that if the last 100 units didn't get that city state, then the next 100 probably won't either. In any case I wish I could see the the stats on how many troops he lost. His "military might graph" took a dive around the time he attacked Florence and I'm assuming he was building just to fund that war. He did left off at times, but it was always shorted lived, and I'm stunned at how many troops he produced.
On a very positive note, tall empires are competitive to some extent, sadly I wasn't very good with mine, but I still pulled off my culture win I so desired. I wouldn't have if Darius had the good sense to just go for the culture win, but hey. He also ended the game on around 10,000 gold, enough to buy enough votes easily. But hey, they only act like people in the sense that their goits eh?
Anyhow, the first thing I noticed was the soul crushing unhappiness of new cities with India. One city and I went from +3 to -5. I got back to parity and got a second settler out with a social policy, but I thought I'd wait a minute. Then Ramesses had to try and plonk a city of his own nearby, so I was forced to take the plunge to -8! I built up some defensive troops, and got my empire off to a good start. To bought up the city state below me and I eventually added a 4th city next to old faithful and a mountain, which I felt was ample protection from Genghis, who was at the time being friendly. My continent turned into a big peaceful love fest and whilst Ramesses was crushed into a corner he loved me and Genghis too. Everybody lived happily ever after...
...wait, that doesn't sound right. No, Genghis declared war on my city state friend and was about to steam roll it. I asked him nicely to stop (asked him how much for peace) and he told me he didn't need anything. So that crisis was averted and everyone was happy. Then he suddenly decided he hated me and built up a massive army on my boarder. Having changed my pants I watched as Genghis declared war on my city state friend Florence once more... This time it was a permanent war, a mere 100 turns in (good show ol' chap!). Not wanting to lose my ally I surrounded his city with my own troops. I covered the 4 spaces free whilst one was a mountain and another water (behind a mass of mountains and my land) and then proceeded to wait for Genghis to declare war on me. Instead of declaring war on me, he seemed happy to just keep marching new units into their land and losing a troop per turn. It was like some strange conveyor belt.
During this time I'd built around 8 wonders and hit a mid game wonder drought. Having Ramesses next to me I thought I'd be beaten to everyone, but it seemed that I boxed him in nicely. Or so I thought. He'd cunningly added to his 3 city empire with a cheeky 5 cities on another continent, 2 on rubbish islands and had working relationships with all the other empires in the world, which he seemingly exploited for research agreements. As such the rubbish little empire I thought was no threat was suddenly a massive monster on my boarder. He was out teching me and soon to my distress so was another empire, Persia. I scouted the rest of the World, finding yet again (for the 4th time in 4 games) the charred remains of the Inca and some other pointless empires.
Some time passed and it was clear that I wasn't doing well in the tech states, however I got a social policy giving me research from city states and as such bought them up like cheap who... ... ...whine... Wine! This coupled with research agreements with Genghis, who was still merrily expending a troop per turn on Florence allowed me back into the game. During this time I noted how peaceful the world was. Excluding the mandatory early destruction of the Inca the world was at complete peace and had been throughout the game.
I then got a pop up telling me that the Persians were doing better in the culture stakes. He then proceeded to build another 4 cities in some free space he found (phew!). Having this threat to my cultural victory attempt out of the way I moved on to continue watching the turnly destruction of Genghis' troops.
Soon we moved into the modern era and I was once more in trouble in the tech stakes, but not far off in culture. My capital was a production machine and everyone was happy and peaceful. Then suddenly the arch duke of Siam was assassinated, or something of the sort. Suddenly Siam declared war on Russia, then Persia on Siam, then Egypt on Persia. The peace of the world dissolved within turns and suddenly cities were going every few turns. Genghis got in the action by attacking everyone at once (?!?!?!) whilst still keeping up their war with Florence (still ticking along). Did it matter? So from the most peaceful games (only one civ brutally slaughtered) I had to the ( Siam-Egypt v Persia-Russia ) v Genghis war.
Whilst this was fun and all I only really cared about my culture win. Then suddenly rolling denouncements against me?! It started with Siam (the only interaction we've had is meeting one another) and then to Genghis (HELP!) then suddenly Persia, Russia and Egypt. The wars stopped and I had the planet making menacing comments and movements toward my pitiful empire. Then Russia decided to help themselves to Siam, just casually. It literally took 10 turns.
Everything died down, I had one social policy left and everyone was friendly with me again (?!). At this time Ramesses was parading around his nuclear weapons whilst Genghis was still trying to take Florence. I was bracing for an epic finally. Now having all my policies I began construction of the Utopia Project with 14 turns to build. The very next turn I got the message "Persia has completed the United Nations" and it was 10 turns to the vote for diplomatic victory. The turn before the vote I faced a dilemma. Having 11 city state friends I could even just not vote for myself, it was guaranteed victory. But I didn't want some crap diplomatic victory, I came for culture and I endured some 300 turns of watching Genghis lose troops to get it! So I declared war on 2 of my city state friends, then made peace. I didn't check who they'd default to and I was told the next turn:
Votes:
Darius - 9
You - 8
Others - 1
He sly git bought out one of my city states! Clever AI, still not good enough though. Then I realised that he bought out the one that I had +200 influence with, whilst I had two that were previously his teetering on about 70-80. Persia aside I reflected on their decision to screw their chances of a cultural victory by building more cities and waiting through more of Genghis' troops being destroyed by Florence. With a turn to go I let Genghis have his way and withdrew my troops. I was informed I won, but nothing about Florence. After looking through the graphs were Persia kicked me into dust in the raw culture stakes throughout most of the game I decided to play another turn to see what happened. It was then that Genghis asked me what my troops were doing "on his boarder" and I assured him that "they were passing through the area". Looking down I saw that he'd moved some troops. He apparently didn't even bother trying to go for Florence because my troops were a threat (?!?!). At least that's what it seemed like. So after thousands of years of war, they give up on their chance because my peaceful empire moved some troops... out of the way!
Overall, whilst annoying that I had to watch
EVERY
SINGLE
ONE
of Genghis' troops be destroyed, it was sort of fun, in a... well, actually no! It was just annoying and made the game take twice as long! The cultural victory had some tactics not involved that my usual;
I'm being peaceful
Don't declare war
AAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGG
Since when did I control their entire empi... oh!
strategy, and to be honest it was quite fun. Though, in a game where the AI are gits because "they play like people", I do wish they were like people sometimes and realise that if the last 100 units didn't get that city state, then the next 100 probably won't either. In any case I wish I could see the the stats on how many troops he lost. His "military might graph" took a dive around the time he attacked Florence and I'm assuming he was building just to fund that war. He did left off at times, but it was always shorted lived, and I'm stunned at how many troops he produced.
On a very positive note, tall empires are competitive to some extent, sadly I wasn't very good with mine, but I still pulled off my culture win I so desired. I wouldn't have if Darius had the good sense to just go for the culture win, but hey. He also ended the game on around 10,000 gold, enough to buy enough votes easily. But hey, they only act like people in the sense that their goits eh?
